You shouldn't have to pay for Instagram followers. That being said, if you want to gain a large follower base for free, you'll need to practice basic procedures like posting often, engaging other users, and providing unique and varied content. Adding tags to your posts and linking your other social media accounts to your Instagram may also afford you an upswing in followers.

Steps

Part 1

Using General Tips

1

Add detailed information to your bio. You can customize your existing bio information by tapping Edit Profile while on your account page. A professional Instagram page will include the following:

A link to your website (or a separate social media account on which you are active).

A description of the content you're trying to provide.

A memorable name that adequately sums up your content.

2

Link your other social media accounts to Instagram. You can do this from the Linked Accounts section of the Settings menu in the Instagram app. Linking your existing accounts will spread your content across other platforms, thereby increasing the number of views that your profile gets.

3

Decide on a content theme. If you don't have a general purpose to your content, both you and your followers will quickly become confused and/or distracted. While you should feel free to come up with your own theme, some easy themes include:

Cooking

Outdoor pursuits

Urban exploration

Fitness

4

Post often. Ideally, you'll post at least once a day, every day of the week. You can keep your audience engaged by doing the following:[1]

Varying your content (but not your theme)

Posting dynamic content (e.g., Boomerang media or videos)

Posting at around 5:00 PM (or 2:00 AM) EST

5

Interact with other Instagram accounts. Following other users and liking/commenting on their posts is an easy way to garner a few followers here and there, and you'll likely build relationships in the process.

6

Listen to user feedback. After you gain a fair amount of followers, some of them will likely have requests. If you listen to their feedback and deem it appropriate for your account, consider incorporating their suggestions into your content production--the happier your followers are, the more they'll want to stay with your account.

Part 2

Using Common Hashtags

1

Familiarize yourself with Instagram hashtags. Tags make your content searchable by people who are looking for those specific tags.

Tagging is also a great way to extend your outreach to the Instagram community.

2

Look up the most frequently-used hashtags. Ideally, you'll want to add 10 to 20 of these tags to your photos. Doing so will increase your content's visibility, thereby garnering your followers.

Instagram tends to look down on misleading tagging, so you can't simply add irrelevant popular tags to your content.

3

Create content based around hot tags. Since you can't add false tags to your content, curate content that matches those tags.

For example, if "#love" is currently trending, you might take a picture that matches your content theme and add "#love" to the description.

4

Add hashtags to your photos. You can do this from the upload screen after taking a photo, or you can choose to edit your existing photos after uploading them.

Tags should pertain to your photos, but they should also work with your theme. Keep your tags focused.

References

To get free Instagram followers, start by deciding on a content theme for your page, such as cooking or fitness, and providing a description of the content in your bio. Next, look up the most frequently used hashtags and add these to relevant photos, or create content based on common hashtags. For example, if #love is currently trending, take a picture that matches your content theme and add #love to the description. Then, link your other social media accounts to your Instagram account, so your content spreads across other platforms. For more tips, like how to interact with other Instagram accounts to get followers, read on!

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